CAMBRIDGERACING
CUAC , the  Cambridge University  Automobile  Club had  for some considerable time been instrumental in assisting the British Motor Industry in general  and BMC  and Ford in particular with the  world  record  speed/distance attempts  that gave the advertising of the products  a  very factual  air  of achievement. The team of enthusiasts that gave their time and considerable effort to get the logistical  side of  the  attempt on track  for particular booked dates on the French parabolicaly banked track  at  Monthlerley just outside  Paris  france.  This  famous venue has been the French equivalent of our MIRA for many years. The french industry to test their products at sustained high speed  gaining valuble data for their very active  interest in the overall  aerodynamics and fuel efficency that could  only  be verified  by the  sustained testing .Today the world has moved on.  The whole of this process being undertaken by computer models before anything is made   in solid  metal,  CUAC had had very positive results with the  BMC Austin Healey and the Ford  Anglia and Corsair. That was in the 50s our last visit to the circuit was in the  in the late  60s  when the constant pounding that the highspeed track was sustaining was begining to take its  toll  giving  the start of serious  deterioration in the integrity of the conrete sections , This made the future  rather open to question unless the french government were to put in hand the structural  repairs needed.
The circuit racing team  was initially to be .Arthur  Taylor, Gerry  Boxall, and Brian Whitaker.Others  were to join later  as time went on.
The  CUAC  team  at  Monthlery with some of the people that raced under the CambridgeRacng  banner
To give an indication of the true shape of this remakable palce
The ex Nancy Mitchell  Healey  at scrutineering at Le-Mans
with the Clarke brothers  in attendance .
The plot was for us  to build and prepare a team of three A35 cars with  the A series engine cost being important factor ,
To this end an approach was made initially by, I, believe Arthur Taylor to cost out a budget pricefor a seasons racing using 3 Austin.A35s  " The Cambridge Racing " team was being born, The ?A? series engines tuned  to be competetive but not to the degree of being unreliable, most usefull with the mini over the  horizion .. The  support vehicle was a new Ford Popular van, owned by Arthur Taylor   we fitted it with a Murry  overdrive (twogear levers) which gave us  6 Speeds.,  the 100E  engine  was tweaked  a bit   with a  four  branch manifold  etc. It  worked well in fine  warm weather but in cold damp conditions   rather prone to carb icing in the downdraught Solex  from the  standard  installation.
Gerry Boxall&  Brian Whitaker
The new cars were delivered  with consecutive  numbered  registrations  all  three in black  with white stripe  and  distinctive coloured grilles  for easy ident. 771  was yellow 772 was red 773  was blue  Cambridge  of  course.they had  varying Specifications 771  was pair of  SUs flowed 1/1/4 772  was a pair  1/1/2  the car  with the 2x 1/1/2  was the quickest and as such all three were  eventually  brought to this spec in spite of the lap times being  much less  different  than  Don originally thought
Late at  Snetterton due to colision with sheep
The  A35s  were built  and prepared  and  carried out a  very sucessful  season for relative newcommers,  with a results  stream of 8  firsts 11 seconds   5thirds   for the  1959 season.  This  year also saw the emergence of Doc  shepherd  as a force in the uk  saloon car racing world in an  A35 then proceeding on  to his legendary  A 40 . John Richard Aley joined  the fray with some competition  gaining vast experience with his own MINI  JRA 85  using the car as his daily transport gave him an  a  considerable  edge eventaually becoming the owner of TVE772 the quickest of the three A 35s.
Lancastian
John  Clarke  joined the Cambridge Racing team  with his  ex Nancy  Mitchell  ex  works Healey100/6   this  car was campaigned very well by Nancy  in the Rally  field.  John was to run the car to get experience towards   qualifying for Le Mans. the following  year.
Following the 59 saloon season Arthur Taylor fancied an open wheeled car  At, this time the transition was in hand  from front engine to rear engine  in all formsof open wheeled racing including the ,F1 ,F2, F3 brigade.
Arthur  Taylor  in car  Ray  Simpson from Castrol and   yours Truely
Eric  Broadley of  Lola Cars had produced hisFormula Junior front engined rear drive visually very similar  to a scaled down Vanwall a very  attractive car in the pure traditional  perception of single seater race car.Two cars were ordered and delivered.
These  cars  were to have Ford power units.  To  get to grips with the production of  a race unit  to compare with the success levels enjoyed with  the  BMC  a series  Don purchased a 105 Anglia to use as a rolling test bed.. The upgrades  went ahead to the engine and as such  progress was being made  inspite of the many problems the 105 engine  showed  as it progressed towards a race worthy unit  grades of valve material specs  and loadings of the valve gear received early atention. Don  had distinct preference for SU  carbs as opposed to the Italian fixed jet Weber Carburettori; Arthur Taylors Lola had a 4 x1/14 SU set  up at one stage.
The second Lola in the team  wa sto be for
Jerremy  Bates   an  aquaintence  of  Arthur Taylors,  hailing from the borders of
Scotland , attaining astonishing averages on his way down to Cambridge  in his  "Wilkie" tuned   Jaguar  XK150  the high  eighties being the norm   without any motorways  or  speed  cameras in those halcyon days.
.Jeremy had a college contemporary that was one of the leading  lights at  Cosworth being a college chum it  made  sense for the power  unit for his Lola to be sourced from there in view of the  rate of progress made at Cambridge,  Don  decided  the BMC  Cooper development work had to advance and  it  took  precedence.over the Lola project ,  The A series work  had great potential for the establishment of a future in the A series  tuning world especially with the  mini coming along , and the quite considerble technical assistnce coming from Abingdon  comp dept.
Arhur Taylor at  Snetterton for initial  shake down. Sticks out a bit doesent he ???
Arthur Taylor being a mere 6 ft3  tall had the problem of having rather more of  himself exposed to the  slip stream than  was  efficient or desirable ,  Arollover would have been  a real problem ,in spite of me adding  several inches on to the height  of the  roll over  hoop. Jeremy in the other  car had  a completely different set of problems due to a climing accident  in earlier  years  he had  had frostbite on his toes leading to amputation . He  had  been fitted with a special set of surgical  boots to  enable him to drive , which he did very well .I  made up some special  speciat adaptions to enable him to  function at a level that was   competetive at the time,  After much practice the start line procedure was finalised and with the aid of a hand throttle link I enginered into the system just for starting,  He adapted  well  and   grew in his  confidence with the system, to the degree that he put up some pretty remarkable performances   bearing in mind his  disability this  was all happenng wth the Mini  Just over the horizon ,
Of the two he was marginally quicker possibly due to his natural agression stemming from his determination to not let his handicap  get in the way of his chosen sport.
Both  cars and the tow vehicle were  painted in the same  team colours black and  a broad  white stripe  front to back. . in order to  get the transporting organised  at a reasonble  cost  ,  Arthur  Taylor  comisioned  some one local to him in Birmingham to build a double deck trailer one that could be towed behind the support Ford Popular van . The lower  deck  runners  were removeable to give a run up  facility for loading the top deck ., when the two wheeled unit was tilted down at the rear.
This worked well apart from one  factor the trailer weighed  about twice the weight of both the cars,  In todays world  would be totally illegal .
  It towed quite well once the  weight distibution  was sorted , but it was not something one would want to get out of shape
as the  cart could easily  wag the horse
The van  only having  a  3 speed  box  was a bit of a problem with wide gap between 2nd and  third so  in order to  make the whole thing viable   we fitted  a  Murray  overdive to the rear of the Ford box , giving us  6  speed and the option of playing tunes with the two gear levers ,  after  a little practice it worked  well .
Memories of this outfit  stalled Iced up on the hill leaving Grantham one mech having to slurp fuel into the carb from a can to get to the top to enable a rest on
levelground, the man in question was Frank  Hamlin of  NZ
Two car trailer and tow car and yours truly
Lola Jnr Lookalike The Mighty  Vanwall
  After the launch of this  revoloutionary little car that  the mini  was.  It was not long before the call was  made  to get it into motor sport. The Cooper  version was on the way  but the saloon  racing  regs of the time  favoured the  850. GP2 form.
Later on with much more power  from the re-design  brought about by the Cooper variant  in conjunction with the Westlake  operation.    
  Don concentrated   on the   BMC  involvement  which naturally  diverted  some effort  from  the  Lola  project .
The transision of open  wheeled front engine rear drive cars  in favour of  mid engine rear drive  as opposed to the saloon car world going  the other way to front engine front drive.Don  doubted  the long term value of the Lola project to his business. His  interests focusing strongly on the Mini revoultion rightly so  with all  the now  historical successes of people whom we had the pleasure to call  customers. The  racing fraternity readily apreciated the  huge potential  that the little car possesd , with is  phenominal  road holding  , taking saloon  car racing to an altogether  higher plane than  was previously thought posible . 
There  follows   more detail of other racing from cambridge place during my time with Don Moore>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>....
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